The present invention relates to the creation and playback of music mixes. It is known to create and store music mixes in which music track files are manipulated into a music mix that can be replayed, or played back. Such music track files tend to become rather large, since they include both the mix instructions and the music files themselves.
International Patent Application No. WO 2008/004971 discloses a method of creating a music mix in which the instructions for how to mix the music files are stored in a separate mix instructions file, which is arranged to identify the music track files as they are needed in the mix. The mix instructions file has indications of the music tracks in the music files.
In the above-mentioned '4971 application, the music track files can be retrieved from various databases, for example over the Internet. A mix instructions file is stored locally, and is often also created locally. In the '4971 application, the mix instructions file itself is not disclosed to be retrievable from another computer. Such a remote mix instructions file retrieval would lead to problems because the retrieval of a file takes some time, depending on the size of the file and the capacity of the network. However, at the same time a mix instructions file is being retrieved, it would be desirable to be able to share the mix instructions on the file, even in real time, that is, while the set of mix instructions is being created on the file.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mix instructions file and data structure for producing a mix of a plurality of music tracks, the file and structure being suitable for file streaming over a network.